Thorold’s POVI didn’t run,Not at first.I stood still, back pressed against a pine tree, heart hammering so loud I thought it might give me away.The forest was unnaturally quiet.Even the crickets had gone silent.My eyes adjusted slowly. The three figures beyond the ridge hadn't moved. Their cloaks rippled in the wind, pale moonlight outlining their shapes—tall, lean, cold.Council wolves or instructors but Assassins.I didn’t wait for them to step forward.I turned and ran.Branches whipped against my arms and face as I sprinted through the trees, my boots slamming against the dirt. I didn’t shift—not yet. I needed my hands. My balance. My senses.Behind me, I heard nothing.No breathing.No footsteps.But I knew they were there.They’re trained to hunt you, I reminded myself. This isn’t a spar. This is survival.Every path I took, they would predict.Every move I made, they would follow.So I did the one thing they wouldn’t expect.I stopped.I dropped to one knee in a clearing a
Thorold’s POV The land changed as I neared the Hollow. The trees grew darker, thicker. The air itself felt older. It pressed against my skin like breath — warm one moment, icy the next. Even the wind whispered differently here. Not in words, but in *warnings*. No birds. No beasts. Just silence… and that strange, pulsing energy that had called to me days ago. I didn’t know how long I’d been running. Time blurred after the first ridge. Every step had been pure instinct. Toward something I didn’t understand, but *needed* to. The path wasn’t marked. No signs. No roads. Just a sense that I was being led. Nudged by the forest itself. And then, just before sunrise, I saw it. Black Hollow, It wasn’t a city but It wasn’t a village. It was a wound in the world. The trees opened into a wide basin, as if the land had once collapsed inward. The center pulsed with low, steady magic — old and deep. Around it, stone towers rose like fingers from the earth, twisted and half-ruined, overgrown
Zara’s POV I had never seen Ryker like this. Silent. But not calm. He rode like a blade unsheathed — too sharp to be ignored, too dangerous to approach. The last time I saw him this still, there was blood in his fur and fire in his eyes. He hadn’t spoken since we crossed the northern ridge, where Seris told us the truth. Thorold had escaped. Not fled. Not rebelled. He had been **hunted**. And survived. Now he was in a place neither of us had seen in over two decades. A place buried under ancient law and deeper magic. Ryker finally spoke when the forest began to change. “He’s here,” he said hoarsely. I felt it too. The way the wind shifted. The hum beneath our wolves’ paws. The pulse of something ancient threading the air like a second heartbeat. Our son was here. And he was waking into something the world hadn’t seen in centuries. The entrance was subtle. Not a gate or a tower — but a twisted arch of stone and woven vine, hidden in the roots of a black wi
Zara’s POV The path out of Black Hollow was steep. Too steep. Every step away from him felt like betrayal. Ryker didn’t speak for the first hour. Neither did I. What could we say? What words could soften the truth that once again, we were walking away from our son? Except this time, it was his choice. This time, we weren’t the ones who had to make the sacrifice. He was. And we had to live with it. I rode just behind Ryker, watching the way his shoulders stayed stiff beneath his cloak, the way his hands clenched the reins too tightly. He was unraveling quietly — the way only he could. Not in rage or tears. But in the way he wouldn’t look back. Not once. “He’s stronger now,” I said finally, needing to fill the silence with something that didn’t ache. “You saw it. He’s not lost.” Ryker didn’t answer right away. Then: “He was always strong. We just never gave him the space to find it.” I swallowed hard. “You blame us?” “I blame the world,” he said. “And maybe myself. A lit
Thorold’s POV Black Hollow did not train warriors. It unraveled them thread by thread—until only the raw core remained. Then, and only then, did it start to rebuild. The first time I stepped into the Circle’s sanctum, I felt like the air itself rejected me. Every breath was too sharp, like drawing in starlight and thorns. The stone beneath my feet hummed with something… aware. I could feel it moving beneath the surface, ancient and watching. Elyra, the woman with gold eyes and a voice like midnight wind, stood waiting at the center of the sanctum. Around her, runes pulsed in a rhythm I couldn’t hear but could feel echoing in my bones. “You’ll need to let go of everything you think you know,” she said, her gaze piercing but not unkind. “Your name. Your blood. Even your wolf.” I swallowed hard. “Why?” “Because the Veil doesn’t care about legacies. It only listens to balance. You can’t touch it while clinging to who you were.” I nodded. I wasn’t sure I understood her. But I kne
Thorold’s POV The Hollow was quieter now, too quiet. It wasn’t just my paranoia. The wolves around me—once watchful but warm—had grown colder. Eyes that used to greet mine now slid past. Conversations stopped when I entered a room. And the wind carried whispers I wasn’t meant to hear. “He wasn’t meant to see that vision.” “He touched the Threadstream too soon.” “If he fractures, the Hollow falls with him.” Elyra had assured me everything was fine. That I was progressing faster than expected. But progress shouldn’t feel like isolation. I wasn’t just training anymore. I was being observed. I was summoned to the outer ring for a new lesson—one I hadn’t heard of before. Elyra didn’t meet me. Instead, I was met by a Guardian named Maelen. Tall. Silent. Eyes like winter steel. He gave no instructions. Just gestured for me to follow. We moved through unfamiliar paths, deeper into the Hollow’s roots. Into the dark. “Where are we going?” I asked. He didn’t respond. When we st
Thorold’s POV The blade at my throat was cold. Not just in temperature — it carried the chill of betrayal. It was the kind of cold that sinks into your skin, slides down into your bones, and makes you wonder if everything you’ve known was a lie. The face behind the blade was shadowed at first. But the voice? I knew it. “Lira,” I said quietly. “Why?” She didn’t flinch. Didn’t try to lie. Her grip on the dagger remained steady, her expression unreadable. “You were never supposed to get this far,” she said. “You were meant to burn out — like the others.” I blinked. “Others?” She hesitated. For just a breath. And in that pause, I saw her for what she really was. Not just a spy, but just a traitor. “The Council sent you,” I said. “To what? Watch me? Report on me? Kill me if I crossed a line?” “Yes,” she said. “But that’s not all.” The blade didn’t move. “Then what?” She stepped back slightly. Not lowering the knife — but giving us both room to breathe. “I was born in a
Zara’s POV The bell rang just after dawn. It wasn’t a warning bell or a ceremonial chime — it was the ancient bell built into Stormfang’s oldest watchtower. A relic of the first Luna, meant only to sound when the veil between worlds trembled. It hadn’t rung in over two hundred years. Until now. I froze where I stood, halfway down the corridor toward the infirmary. The sound pierced through my bones like a forgotten memory coming back to life. Ryker was already moving when I turned the corner. “You felt it,” he said. Not a question. I nodded, one hand on my chest. “It was him.” He didn’t ask how I knew. We both did. The Pulse of Power Throughout the packlands, wolves dropped what they were doing. Warriors emerged from training grounds, scholars abandoned scrolls, and pups looked skyward like they sensed something bigger than themselves had awakened. A pulse of magic had torn through the air — not violent, not chaotic. But final. As if a seal had broken.
LAUREN'S POVSitting on the towel I've laid by the river of a deep forest close to my pack, I consider this hideout place my paradise.This is the only place I can be myself without the fear that someone will find out my true identity.I like to spend my quiet time by the river in the forest, not too far from my pack. I often visit the beautiful forest to clear my head from the day's stress.When the thought of a dream I had a day before crossed my mind, the moon goddess appeared to me again."My child, it is time."Her message to me was clear, but I asked still, “Am I prepared?”Am I prepared to take back my father's throne from the traitor, who killed my parents and took over our pack?It was just one sentence. She smiled at me and then vanished.The first time she appeared to me, I was just thirteen years after I first shifted into my wolf form.That was also the day I met my companion and my wolf Jada.“She’s gone, Lauren.” Jada said and then added, “She’s so incomparably beautifu
Thorold’s POV I had forgotten what laughter sounded like — real laughter. Not the kind that hides wounds or buys time between battles, but the kind that spills from a wolf’s chest effortlessly, without purpose, just because the sun is warm and the air no longer smells like death. I stood at the edge of the clearing near Stormfang’s lake, watching pups splash in the shallows, their fur soaked and wild, their howls sounding more like songs than calls to arms. This was the pack I had only heard about in stories. Now, I was a part of it. It had been weeks since Mia disappeared into the forest with what remained of her army. No more shadow-wolves. No more traitors. No more blood in the halls. Just quiet. And peace. We didn’t trust this peace completely. But we allowed it in because we were tired and needed to believe that survival could mean more than just the absence of war. I sat in the grass with Kael and Lira, our game of cards forgotten as a group of young warriors tossed a
Thorold’s POV I had forgotten what laughter sounded like — real laughter. Not the kind that hides wounds or buys time between battles, but the kind that spills from a wolf’s chest effortlessly, without purpose, just because the sun is warm and the air no longer smells like death. I stood at the edge of the clearing near Stormfang’s lake, watching pups splash in the shallows, their fur soaked and wild, their howls sounding more like songs than calls to arms. This was the pack I had only heard about in stories. Now, I was a part of it. It had been weeks since Mia disappeared into the forest with what remained of her army. No more shadow-wolves. No more traitors. No more blood in the halls. Just quiet. And peace. We didn’t trust this peace completely. But we allowed it in because we were tired and needed to believe that survival could mean more than just the absence of war. I sat in the grass with Kael and Lira, our game of cards forgotten as a group of young warriors tossed a
Thorold’s POV I had forgotten what laughter sounded like — real laughter. Not the kind that hides wounds or buys time between battles, but the kind that spills from a wolf’s chest effortlessly, without purpose, just because the sun is warm and the air no longer smells like death. I stood at the edge of the clearing near Stormfang’s lake, watching pups splash in the shallows, their fur soaked and wild, their howls sounding more like songs than calls to arms. This was the pack I had only heard about in stories. Now, I was a part of it. It had been weeks since Mia disappeared into the forest with what remained of her army. No more shadow-wolves. No more traitors. No more blood in the halls. Just quiet. And peace. We didn’t trust this peace completely. But we allowed it in because we were tired and needed to believe that survival could mean more than just the absence of war. I sat in the grass with Kael and Lira, our game of cards forgotten as a group of young warriors tossed a
(Zara’s POV)I spotted Thorold behind the healer’s hall, sitting on the low stone wall with his boots dangling just above the dirt. His elbows rested on his knees, shoulders relaxed, and for the first time in days, he looked… at ease.He didn’t flinch when I approached. His head turned slightly, and he gave me a small, tired smile.“Trying to disappear?” I asked.He shrugged. “Just hiding from Ryker. He wants to spar. I told him my bones need a break.”I smiled and sat beside him. “Smart choice. He doesn’t go easy.”“I’m learning.”We watched a few pack members sparring in the open yard. There was no war urgency in their movement. They were laughing, shouting challenges, tripping over their own feet. It was the kind of scene I used to dream about.“You look like him,” I said quietly, surprising myself.Thorold looked over. “Ryker?”I nodded.“The way you stand when you’re thinking. That habit of checking the exits even when you’re smiling. And when you lift your chin before speaking…
LAUREN'S POV Logan was too hot my heart pounding and when I felt his fingers playing with my n**ples, it gave me a different sensation. it felt so good as if that was the first time we were making our downtown move slowly and grabbed my hard n**please, and sucked on it, he was such a baby. "Will you stop teasing me already?" I said to him angrily. Logan kissed me again with passion, his gue trailing down to lick my collarbone, then feature down to my n*please. Logan slipped his hand into my pants and started playing with my cl*****s "Baby you are already wet?" he said, whispering into my ears. he looked up into my eyes, " Bianca,l love you so much, and thank you for not giving up on me when I was lost. he touched my n**ples again, your n*ples are so hard and I love it when I turn you on. I looked him in the eyes, "Will you f**k me already and stop the talking?" my pussy throbbed and ached, he inspected his finger into my p**y and f**led me with his two fingers. it was so g
LAUREN'S POV The elders of the kingdom led the way, followed by the younger members of the pack, all dressed in their finest clothes. As we walked, we sang a beautiful song that celebrated the arrival of the full moon and the union of two souls.As the procession reached the centre of the valley, the elders stepped forward, and the crowd fell silent. They began to speak, their voices strong and clear, and everyone listened intently."We are gathered here tonight to celebrate the arrival of the full moon and the union of two souls. This is a momentous occasion, one that we have been waiting for, for many years. And our young wolves are allowed to explore and find their mates.""We are honoured to witness this union, and we wish the happy couple all the best."The crowd erupted in applause, and the pack elders stepped back, allowing us to step forward. we were both dressed in beautiful clothes, and we looked radiant in the moonlight. They stood facing each other, our eyes locked. "ou
LAUREN'S POV The elders of the kingdom led the way, followed by the younger members of the pack, all dressed in their finest clothes. As we walked, we sang a beautiful song that celebrated the arrival of the full moon and the union of two souls. As the procession reached the centre of the valley, the elders stepped forward, and the crowd fell silent. They began to speak, their voices strong and clear, and everyone listened intently. "We are gathered here tonight to celebrate the arrival of the full moon and the union of two souls. This is a momentous occasion, one that we have been waiting for, for many years. And our young wolves are allowed to explore and find their mates." "We are honoured to witness this union, and we wish the happy couple all the best." The crowd erupted in applause, and the pack elders stepped back, allowing us to step forward. we were both dressed in beautiful clothes, and we looked radiant in the moonlight. They stood facing each other, our eyes locked
LAUREN'S POV As the preparations unfolded, the atmosphere crackled with anticipation, and excitement was palpable. From far and wide, members of various packs journeyed to join in the festivities, eager to witness the union of two destined souls and perhaps even find their own mates amidst the throngs of wolves. The air was filled with the scent of roasting meat, and the sounds of laughter and chatter echoed through the forest. The clearing where the celebration was to be held was adorned with colourful ribbons, and a large bonfire had been lit in the centre. As the sun began to set, the sky turned a deep shade of orange, and the first stars began to twinkle above. At the heart of the clearing stood my mate and I resplendent in our fur coats and adorned with feathered headdresses. we exchanged vows of love and loyalty, and the packs howled in approval. It was a moment of pure joy and unity, one that would be remembered for generations to come. It was a one-week program for ev